The San Diego City Council on Tuesday approved a response to a grand jury report that criticizes the city's rollout of a voter-approved police oversight commission.
The Commission on Police Practices (CPP) was established after 2020's Measure B, which passed with 75% of the vote. The measure gave the commission new powers to conduct independent investigations into officer misconduct complaints.
Police reform advocates have long accused the city of slow-rolling Measure B's implementation. The CPP lacked a quorum for years and went through several leadership changes before the current executive director was hired in January.
Even today, six years after voters created the CPP, the commission is still unable to conduct independent investigations into many complaints. That's because the commission's permanent operating procedures are still subject to negotiations between Mayor Todd Gloria and the San Diego Police Officers Association (SDPOA), the union representing sworn officers.
The grand jury report calls on the City Council to "take prompt and constructive actions to finalize 'Meet and Confer' negotiations" with SDPOA and two other city employee unions.
Independent Budget Analyst Charles Modica, whose office is tasked with coordinating responses to grand jury reports, said the sensitivity of labor negotiations makes a detailed response difficult.
"There are some things that are still subject to, frankly, closed session discussions as well," Modica said. "We're trying to walk that line appropriately and not divulge negotiating positions."
The grand jury report made four findings, which the city must respond to with one of three options: "agree," "disagree in part" or "disagree."
The council ultimately voted 5-1 to change two proposed responses from "disagree in part" to "agree." Councilmember Jennifer Campbell voted "no" but did not speak during the council's discussion.
Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera criticized Police Chief Scott Wahl for not attending the council meeting and sending a deputy instead. He also criticized the department's response to one recommendation related to the CPP's access to files kept by the San Diego Police Department's Internal Affairs Unit.
City officials say the Internal Affairs Unit shares with the CPP all the documents and information allowable under state law. But it does so through a shared Google Drive, rather than granting the CPP independent access to the software program where investigation files are stored.
Captain Jud Campbell, who currently heads the Internal Affairs Unit, said the software does not have a setting that can filter out the CPP's access to information that state law deems confidential.
"We're not aware of a way to separate out access to specific data that's contained in that case," Campbell said.
Elo-Rivera responded saying SDPD should simply find new software with better capabilities.
"Our police department … wants to be able to use license plate readers to track people across the city, wants to bring in AI to help write reports," Elo-Rivera said. "You name it, and SDPD is going after it. And we haven't even looked to see whether or not there's a different database that could provide the access that the CPP is asking for."
